Day 93 - Oceanside Boardwalk, Cairns - Champagne with Wild Hibiscus Flowers

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Always so sad to see out-of-town guests go home ...

As a bit of a send-off for Nicole, a friend of mine from Sydney, we met up for a cocktail along the boardwalk off Cairns' boat marina. The weekend prior, on our day-trip to Kuranda, I had secretly made a couple of foodie purchases. One of those was Wild Hibiscus Flowers. What does one do with these? The store owner assured me the best way to enjoy these would be to drop one of these edible flowers, with some syrup, into the bottom of a champagne glass, and the top-up with bubbly. This sounded like a great girly drink to me, and since Nicole is a bit of a girly-girl, something told me she would be appreciative of the gesture. :)

Beautiful, clear night, we found ourselves a nice bench in a garden off the boardwalk where I produced the concealed bottle of sparkling wine along with the jar of hibiscus flowers.

Apparently it was Nicole's first-ever bottle, so naturally I let her (try to) open it ...

After watching Nicole agonize to open the bottle for five, long minutes, I did the honors myself (at her request).

Definitely a simple, and elegant, way of enjoying a glass of champagne (or any other drink, for that matter).

We sat on the park bench, enjoying our champagne, discussing life, religion and love (y'know ... the light topics).

Edible flowers are a neat little ingredient to use in cooking. Some flowers are definitely better to use than others. To learn more, you can consult any one of numerous websites dedicated to this topic.

Here's a good one - http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/blflowers.htm.